Lam Ching Ying was born on the 27/12/52. Like fellow martial art stars Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, Lam also studying at a peking opera school although he only went there after he finished elementary school. Madame Fan Fok -Fa (Fun Guk-fa), was the teacher at Lam’s peking opera school who was also a rival to Jackie Chan’s teacher Yu Jim Yuen, but most of the students from both schools actually got on really well and occassionally hung out together.
(Below is a video that shows lam performing peking opera in a few movies) Enjoy.
In the late 60′s teaching’s started to fade so like others, Lam took the familiar route into Kung Fu movies. He firstly joined up With the newly found Golden Harvest Movie company (Rivals to the great Shaw Brothers), at the time there were bitter feelings between Run Run Shaw and Golden Harvest founder Raymond Chow, (Although he did a few bits of work for shaw brothers as a stuntman). Lam’s first job with Golden Harvest was on Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss, where he was actually a martial arts choreographer along with co – director Han Yingjie. He can also be spotted in the movie working at the factory and there are lots of close ups in the film that clearly show his face. After this movie he was then again used for Bruce Lee’s next project Fist Of Fury, where he can be seen playing one of the Japanese bad guys who is destroyed by Bruce in the film. Lam’s relationship with Bruce was close and he then next worked with him on the massive hit Enter The Dragon working as a stuntman on the film and is only seen sitting next to Jim Kelly when him and John Saxon are taking bets on the fights. Also the likes of Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao Yuen Wah and Sammo Hung appear in this movie, all of them apart from sammo only worked as extras.
Throughout the 70′s Lam Ching Ying worked very hard behind the camera or playing very small parts as badguy’s or stunt doubles, and it wasn’t really until the early 80′s that work started to come his way thanks to Legendary director/actor Sammo hung. Lam’s First role was in Sammo’s Magnificent Butcher where he played a badguy, the fight between him and yuen biao is incredible. The timing from both fighters is excellent and just shows how hard it is to get skill like that infront of the camera (Something we lack these days). Lam was next cast in Sammo’s Encounters Of The Spooky Kind a martial arts/horror film where Lam would play a police officer trying to find sammo (who was framed for killing his wife). The movie was a massive hit and next up was the incredible Prodigal son, a movie to me which goes down as one of the best kung fu movies ever made. Lam Played Leung Yee Tai the teacher to yuen biao in the movie, He shows us some of the best wing chun moves ever in a movie and his acting skills were really on top form which led to a new and exciting career for Lam Ching Ying.
Watch the clip below to see lam ching ying in action from The Prodigal Son.
Lam then did a movie called The Dead And The Deadly where he played a Toast Priest who would tackle evil forces and destroy them with his skills. This role alone led him to do this over and over again as audiences had found there Van Helsing of the east, and movies such as the Mr Vampire seires was created and other movies relating to that role.
Here is a clip of Lam in action from the movie Spooky Encounters the follow up to Encounters of the Spooky Kind. Enjoy.
The success of Mr Vampire had now led Lam to being typecasted in that role and found it difficult to get other role, He had bit parts in movies like Pom Pom And Hot Hot, Shanghai Express, Pedicab Driver, My Lucky Stars and others. This is really sad as Lam Ching ying is a fantastic actor, he could show so many emotions on screen and probably play any kind of character but didn’t really get his chance. (School On Fire is one movie to check out for acting alone).
In the 90′s people were saying that HK cinema was starting to go down hill with people like Jackie Chan, Jet Li Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun fat going over to hollywood, where as Lam and Yuen Biao had to swallow their prides and do Crappy B flick action movies. Why? im not sure, maybe they didn’t have the following the rest of the guys had, which again is a massive shame.
Lam Ching Ying then went on to make Vampire Expert, a tv series which was 2 parts and made over 100 episodes for it. The series was a hit on television and couldv’e have brought Lam back to the big screens but this was not to happen because in 1997 Lam Ching Ying died from liver cancer a battle he had tried to win for a long time. This news was massive and even his close frineds like Sammo Hung did not know about this illness as Lam kept it quiet and only had his close family around him when he passed. Sammo still gets choked up about this when people talk about it in interviews as Lam was a very,very close friend to him.
Here is a music video dedicated to the late great vampire expert. Enjoy.
Lam Ching Ying had a fantastic career starring in some of the greatest kung fu and horror movies ever made and he will always be remembered as the vampire killer. No one could do it better than him, and i very much doubt there will be anyone to take that role away. He was even buried with his Toast priest hat and jacket.
Fantastic actor, great martial artist and stuntman. Forever missed.
